Before the patriarchy changed the meaning of the word woman, they changed the meaning of the word good. In pre-patriarchal times, good meant something positive, helpful for the community, considered good by the living (which included the animals, plants, land, oceans and air), the dead and those yet to be born. Good was a full word, a considered concept, bold with honesty and integrity. Good would stay looking good whichever way you looked at it. It would be positive over the short and long term, the local, national and global scale, for the past, present and future, and from everyone’s perspective. (Let’s for argument’s sake think this might have been true.) 

When considering, for example, whether oil men should take control of a piece of forest, burn down the trees, drill a well and extract fossil rocks millions of years in the making, people thought about what the ancestors would say, what the trees might feel. What would the locals, even if they just came through once a year, might think. What about the future? How would it impact the land, the water, the life there? What even, would the earth say about her careful store of sun and consolidated sun energy and carbon being snatched, transformed into cheap energy, used by and for power. What of the atmosphere being injected with destabilising extra carbon dioxide? This would all be carefully assessed and I’m sure such deforestation and oil rigging not be deemed good.  

But the meaning of the word good was changed, transed. Patriarchal scholars in their academented ivory towers cut and sliced good into amoral floating parts, injected it with cross morality meanings, fragmented good by breaking chains of reasoning with unintelligible verbiage until most people accepted their simplistic and power serving redefinition of good. Good is now good for the powerful. Good is what gives more power to the powerful. It’s good for you, say the higher ups, whilst covering up the real effects of their reasoning. The hangers on turn a blind eye to the harm done by this changed patriarchal good. Most people, befuddled by post-modern verbiage, have no idea what good is.  

These days, the patriarchs control what good is, and where it can be done. They provide sanctioned spaces, high status professional well paid caring jobs – all with the caveat that do-gooders do their good within the realm of patriarchy. Good should be done within churches, the health services, the growing mental health services, and schools. They vilify anyone who dares to say they are doing good outside the bounds of patriarchy. Indeed, they expel TERF wrong thinkers from the caring professions because someone with such evil damaging views cannot be sanctioned to help. Within patriarchy, you can do good in a caring job as long as you tow the current line, profess the patriarchal mantra, which today is show your preferred pronouns and stay mum (silent) about what you see in your workplace.  

Things went off track for the patriarchy, for a while, in the 1970s and 80s. With all the post war riches in the West, young women had time to drop out for a few years, or work part time and do all sorts of good outside the remit of patriarchy. Loads of good was done by women in those years – safeguarding, ending rape in marriage, demanding police prosecute paedophiles in the media, church, schools and scouts, getting women in political parties. All this was good. It was good for the women involved, good for children and good for communities. It made the world a better place, and it was done in the name of feminism. Good came from the women’s liberation movement.  

Progress fifty years ago was made by women for women against god the father, against conservatisim, against religion, against patriarchal institutions. If progress had carried on in that direction, women would have ended up free, but instead of freedom we got a hollow equality. The massive movement – women’s lands, consciousness raising, improving conditions, doing good – was genuine good – metapatriarchally good. If you see it as a binary good v bad struggle, it was the good women’s movement against the bad patriarchy. And it was working, making the world a better place. Critically, many people could see that feminists were doing good and were good. They could see that good god was actually bad. This wouldn’t do for the patriarchs; the whole thing might unravel. Some non-Christians say that although they don’t believe in god, they think god is useful concept which actually means good. In their view God is a shorthand for good so even many atheists accepted god was good.  

The riposte from the patriarchy was to colonise and re direct the women’s movement into something less damaging to patriarchy – indeed something that reinforced a new patriarchy. This colonisation of progress has been done many times before. It’s a recipe, a manoeuvre. When a progressive movement happens, if the patriarchs can’t beat it, they take control of it and reshape it. They twist it and turn it back on itself. In Western Societies, it’s the modus operandi. It’s a creative, progressive way to control women. Rather than push women back into their old roles, the modernising, innovative Western men have devised a forward moving method to dominate women. Europe invented the witch hunts, now they’ve invented this.  

The Christian church, the labour movement and now the trans movement are all examples of this patriarchally colonised progressiveness. As such, right wing patriarchal men like Matt Walsh are correct in identifying that the transcraze had some roots in feminism. It’s like a plant that was growing, now diverted, and channelled. It’s instructive to look at how they function, because it sheds light on that mystifying conundrum – the vehement transmaid (Julie Birchall’s term). She is the modern evangelising missionary with a strong faith, love of drag queens and surety that TERFs are evil. This transcraze seems new, but its structure is old. It is a modern manifestation of the retwisted, double backed, colonised energy of the progressive women’s movement. It explains why many of the most rabid transactivists are female and why they are on a mission to destroy us.   

So how does this double back, U turn, channelling of a progressive movement happen? Firstly, it keeps the essential element of doing good, being progressive. Because transmaids (a term made up by Julie Burchill) are fighting the conservative right, the Christian moralists and the homophobic patriarchs who are bad, transmaids see themselves as good. (See Figure 1.). In relation to conservatives, they are good, the progressive ones. If you talk to transmaids, the most important thing they want is recognition that they are good and doing good and motivated by goodness. If you start a conversation saying you know they are good people, intending to do good and you can see how some of what they are doing can be understood as good, they love it and their hostile barrier breaks down. Sometimes they can then actually discuss the issues calmly, but they need constant praise for their goodness and recognition that they are well intentioned.  

Figure 1. The Good, the Bad and the Evil - Society according to Transmaids 

The labour movement has done this repeatedly – setting up women’s wings, women’s Trade Union Council’s, Women’s officers for branches of the Labour party. The trick was to be the main show in town. The organisational strength of the union or party would be called into play. ¹ The largest International Women’s Day marches have been run by the labour movement, who want to be sure to control the women and be seen to be doing good. It creates safe spaces for women to do good: safely under the wing of the patriarchs. Conversely, women doing good outside the patriarchy, not under the men’s guidance must be vilified, ostracised, destroyed. They are called crazy, devilish, witches, sleeping with or aligned with the devil (in this case the extreme right). “I saw Penny out at night having a drink with the devil (a conservative).” We have seen this in the current transcraze. Some of the first organised groups in the UK fighting the absurd notion that men can become women were Labour and trade union women who did a great job and got a great deal of flak from the men in the movement. But, whilst doing good, they ostracised and vilified radical feminists and encouraged women to be good and to stay within the remit of the left. They attacked any woman who spoke on a platform provided by conservatives, wrote in a right-wing journal, demanding that we only work with the left, who never gave us a platform. At the same time, they took a very soft revisionist line on the trans debate – saying some good men should be recognised as women and using pronouns was simply respectful.  

Socialist Feminists aim to be only good show in town and attack the actual feminists – those women working to overthrow the male sex classes domination over the female sex class. By being the place for feminists to do the good of feminism, by providing a platform for good feminists, they can control the movement and thus are funded by Socialist Parties and state bodies, because they are doing the work of the patriarchs. In the UK, the recently elected “changed” Labour (I bet they really wanted to call themselves Translabour), as they have rebranded themselves, is holding out olive branches to the gender critical women’s movement and I suspect they’ll offer money, status and a place at the table to individuals and groups that help herd feminists into the Socialist fold. It also looks as if more and more transgood, progress towards substituting gender for sex, will come by beefing up human rights laws, which again seem great but will end up transgood, because they’ll defend men’s sex-based rights, men’s individual rights over women’s sex-based rights.  

Figure 2. The Patriarchal Pale Blue line beyond which females must not stray 

This is why Stonewall tried to destroy the LGB alliance. They wanted to be the only ‘good’ in town. In 2024 in UK, if you are young, progressive and don’t like old fashioned sex role stereotypes the only place to go is LGBTQ+ groups. They are the fastest growing faith - they have replaced the young Socialists; they have replaced the young Christians. In fact, many churches now have rebranded, saying they are LGBTQ+ in order to keep up with the times and attract young people. Try googling lesbian places near you and you’ll find reams of LGBTQ+ listings and places to visit, but nothing for lesbians. I was chilled to see that all the key institutions in my local area are part of LGBTQ Pride. They have a total monopoly over doing good in the cultural space locally. 

Doing good, being progressive is attractive to lots of people, particularly females brought up to fulfil their sex role of being kind. What better trap than brainwash females to be kind, be good, but to ensure that it’s kind to the patriarchs? Good women and goodie goodie men can do their good in the LGBTQ+  groups. Like church women doing the flowers, holding communities together. The church colonised community good. It’s the only show in town. Women who want to do good can do it in a safe, patriarchally sanctioned way. As long as they stay within the guidelines and don’t notice the harm they do, it works. They just have to suppress that niggling worry that perhaps some women don’t choose “sex work,” that itching suspicion that young lesbians are being groomed into thinking the older man at the LGBTQ+ club is also lesbian. 

It reminds me of the time when along with my friends, I went to the church youth club to find boys and to find if there was more meaning to life than that presented by my pretty boring teachers, my family and the four existing TV channels. I went I think, looking for sex, but also looking for a way to do good. Flushed with the fervour of church pray groups, when I was about 14, I asked my mum whether she actually believed in god, the god I had seen her pray to and worship every Sunday throughout my childhood. No, she said, I don’t really believe, I just think it is good to be part of a community and do good things in that community. I was gobsmacked. Why had she not told me it was all an empty show? She was pretending to believe. Maybe everyone was. Maybe everyone went to church to do good, and be good, because it was a place provided for good people to do good and most didn’t believe the faith in god bit but did it for the greater good of being in a centre of goodness. Because the church had the best building, the money, the political connections, and power, they monopolised good, and their sham god benefited from the glory. Plus, men behind the scenes got cover for their bad acts. The lie was protected because they’d made it taboo to say you didn’t believe and essential to repeat the lies, singing the lies, chanting them: Oh, come let us adore him, Christ the king, God’s will be done, Our Father who art in heaven.  

Figure 3. How female morality police cajole, warn, herd, and round up stray women outside the patriarchal pale.

To sum up, transmaids think they are good for fourteen reasons (I guess there are more and do put them in the comments). 

Transmaids think they are good because they took a leap of faith, believe in and love their god transgenderism and his sons: transwoman, drag queen and gayman. And they are loved by god. 

Transmaids think they are good because they are breaking down sex-role stereotypes. This will lead to a brave new world where no one cares whether you are a man or a woman. Theirs is the true feminism and one day, we will all be fully human, just individuals.  

Transmaids think they are good because they are fighting bad conservatism which enforces sex role stereotypes on women, delights in heteronormativity. In comparison to bad conservatives, transmaids are good. 

Transmaids think they are good because they are defending the victim/saviour transwoman/drag queen/gay from actual death. The death comes from anyone’s but particularly TERF’s, lack of faith. When I suggested doing a public debate with a self-righteous transmaid I know, she refused, saying she would never forgive herself if anyone who heard my views was harmed in any way. She wanted to protect people, particularly children, from the damage done by my not believing in her saviours. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Jews were labelled Christ killers in the holocaust.  

Transmaids think they are good because in their minds, TERFs are doing evil, and they are trying to stop us. This line of reasoning is laid out very clearly in Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology and Pure Lust in which she lays out the structure behind previous anti women crazes – Chinese foot binding, Indian Suttee, European witch hunting, African female genital mutilation and American gynaecology. She explains the deep societal belief that anything that harms the male is ungodly, ungood, evil. The disagreement between conservative patriarchy and progressive patriarchy is much less profound and can be labelled good versus bad (good and bad ways to run patriarchy). But the disagreement between both patriarchies and radical feminism is deeper – it is the difference between good and evil.  

Transmaids think they are good when they attack TERFs because in their minds, TERFs are enabling the right – transmaids blame us when right wing bigots kill trans. In their minds, we need to unite and fight the conservatives. This is what Judith Butler has been saying for the past few years. It is our refusal to unite and fight that kills, not the actual killers.  

Transmaids think they are good because they get good rewards for their work. Ruth Hunt, for instance, led the trans charge when CEO of Stonewall and was rewarded with a peerage. If she focusses on the good aspects of her work (good breaking down heteronormativity, good fight against homophobia in Russia, good in relation to the relatively bad conservatives) she can feel self-righteously good. It’s a great career move for women to become a transmaid, particularly in politics, the media, and the caring professions. 

Transmaids think they are good because they attend LGBTQ clubs which are doubleplusgood. They have lovely youth leaders encouraging them to progress beyond the limitations of their families, build a better non-sexist world. It feels good at the club so they must be good. 

Transmaids think they are good because it’s sexy to be a transmaid and the LGBTQ+ clubs are a good place to find sex. Rather than admit they are going to club to find sex, they pretend they are going as an act of charity to help make the world a better place. 

Transmaids think they are good because the morality police (mostly women) roam around the area outside patriarchy, beyond the patriarchal pale, warning women, herding women back in, offering them a chance to be good and if they keep refusing, bundling them into a van to be punished by the men.  It would be bad to stray outside and be punished. Transmaids are firmly inside the patriarchal pale so safe to do good with impunity. They are doing patriarchally sanctioned good, transgood. 

Transmaids think they are good because they hang out with transwomen. Transmaids are today’s faghags (straight women enjoying and getting kudos hanging out with gay men). They enjoy the scene, the boundary breaking, gender bending, progressiveness even if they are not part of it. I guess the ultimate selfie for a transmaid would be to snap herself bathing the bleeding wounds of a transwoman who’d been speared by the Romans, sorry, NAZI/TERF alliance they pretend exists. 

Transmaids think they are good because they know it’s what big patriarchal daddy wants them to do. It’s the good he wants. Females are socialised to do good, be kind, and this transgood is especially rewarding, virtuous, safe.  

Transmaids think they are good because it feels good exercising power, made acceptable in the eyes of the brothers because it’s transgood.  

and a bonus reason, from Sharon555 in the comments:

“Transmaids think they are good becuase they are the parents of a trans kid, and cannot bear to face the truth for the reality they've gone along with sterilizing their own children. It's ghastly!”

A patriarchal cage is being constructed around us, bar by bar clamping into place, relentlessly. Paid for by big pharma, supported by all professions, especially caring ones, centring men in dresses. Just as rivers change their course during big floods and then remain relatively calm and stable for many years, society changes its course in high energy, often violent revolutions, transitions, which up the stakes for everyone. Families are split, friends take opposing sides, scapegoats are expelled or destroyed in a frenzy of change, of transformation. People who tolerated difference feel forced to take sides and many join the warring sides – become soldiers, partisans. The fight is on and whoever wins will reshape society for decades, even centuries.  

This transcraze seems new, but its structure is old. It is a modern manifestation of the retwisted, double backed, colonised energy of the progressive women’s movement. Good has been reshaped into transgood. He who controls what good is, controls women. Sadly, transmaids have fallen for the same old lie that you can do good for women under the benevolent umbrella of patriarchy.  

Mary Daly said we need the courage to “sin big,” to move outside patriarchally defined good. It is harder now for the system to hoodwink everyone into believing their version of good because of the internet, and the way the ruling classes new clothes and their systems are cracking – we are seeing their balls hanging out. Horrifically, all this is made much worse by accelerating climate breakdown and time is not on our side.  

Much of this essay draws upon ideas in Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas (1939), Mary Daly’s Gyn/Ecology (1979) and Pure Lust (1984) and Sheila Jeffreys’ Gender Hurts (2014). If you haven’t done so, do read them. They are dynamite.  

If you have got this far, thanks for reading. It means a lot to me and encourages me to write more. If you think this essay is good, not transgood, do consider becoming a paid subscriber, which helps me free up more time to write more.  

Works Cited

Burchill, Julie. “The Rise of the Transmaids.” Spiked-Online.com, spiked, 28 Oct. 2021, www.spiked-online.com/2021/10/28/the-rise-of-the-transmaids/. Accessed 5 Aug. 2024.

Daly, Mary. Gyn/Ecology : The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. 1984. London, The Woman’s Press, 1979.

---. Pure Lust : Elemental Feminist Philosophy. London, Women’s Press, 1984.

Jeffreys, Sheila. Gender Hurts : A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism. Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.

Woolf, Virginia. Three Guineas. New York, Harvest Books, 1939.